


Rules of the Halls

by Kairyn



Series: Hair Like Fire [4]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Don't Say Stupid Things, Gen, Life in the Halls, Sansukh References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 00:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8349829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairyn/pseuds/Kairyn
Summary: There are some very simple rules in the Halls that one should really abide by.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sansûkh](https://archiveofourown.org/works/855528) by [determamfidd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/determamfidd/pseuds/determamfidd). 



> I'm on a bit of a Narvi/Celebrimbor kick lately >.> I have yet another one in the works aside from the two short ones that I finished today. 
> 
> Someone stop me!!! 
> 
>  
> 
> Or not... whichever.

There were many unwritten rules of existing in the Halls of Mahal that most Dwarves knew instinctively or figured out rather quickly.

1) Don't bother questioning where things came from. It was never going to get an answer.

2) Don't fawn over Durin unless one wanted to get a solid headbutt.

3) Try not to bring up any large scale massacres in conversation if it was at all avoidable. Someone nearby was surely to have died in one of them and not all were well adjusted to this fact.

4) Mahal really shouldn't be disturbed unless it was important. (Note that this rule was willfully ignored quite often by certain Dwarves who were looking to get something. Luckily, Mahal was so understanding.)

5) Holding grudges for things that happened in life was probably ineffectual so should be dropped... eventually.

And many others besides. Of course, some Dwarves just _had_ to learn the hard way what one didn't do in the Halls of Mahal.

Narvi was barely paying attention to the Dwarves nearby as she worked on the greaves in front of her. These weren't the ones that annoying Longbeard Nobles were pestering her about, these were her own. Mostly she was making them simply because she could. And she also was having fun making them the most elaborate, elegant, decorative, functional, _kingly_ greaves possible. Just because she refused to help didn't mean she couldn't... show off a wee bit. Maybe she'd put them on display somewhere that could be seen by everyone. Khel would probably be disappointed in her somewhat vicious streak of humor but she didn't care. Maybe if the great royal lump actually _looked_ at what she'd done he'd learn a thing or two. Then she wouldn't _have_ to help him figure out where he'd gone wrong.

It was as she was hammering out a piece of gold for a purely decorative element that she heard the awe behind her. She rolled her eyes. Newcomers. They always got all starry eyed. She exchanged an annoyed look with Bar who was on the side she was currently facing. He shook his head and went back to his own work.

She was set to ignoring the awed Dwarf when something he said caught her attention. "... and Narvi of Khazad-dûm! The one that worked with that twit Elf Khele-something!"

Her hammer stopped instantly despite being mid-swing. The Dwarf's companion shifted his weight uneasily as the forge was suddenly silent. Bar and Telchar shifted their work further away from where Narvi had frozen. "Err, Droy..."

The newcomer didn't seem to notice anything amiss nor his friend's warning glances. "No, really! You remember the story! Everyone knows that foolish Elf Lord went and made the Rings of Power for Mordor. Then he went and told them where they all were like an idio-"

He was suddenly flat on his back with his head ringing and blood gushing from his broken nose. He hadn't even seen Narvi move or the smith's hammer she used to knock some of his teeth loose. He didn't have a chance to figure out what happened either as he promptly passed out. Narvi glared down at the young Dwarf and then his friend. His friend, a resident in the Halls for several years now, nodded and dragged the idiot Droy away.

"Youngsters these days," Telchar muttered as Narvi tossed her smith's hammer onto her table. Bar shook his head again and sighed. They weren't going to see Narvi for a few days most likely. Sad. They had been looking forward to seeing what the unnecessary elaborate greaves she was making would turn out looking like.

When Droy woke up, he quickly found out that a face full of hammer was just the tip of the iceberg. The first problem he encountered was that his door was stuck. Not just jammed closed or suffering a busted lock or anything like that. But _stuck_. He'd no idea how it was done, but he'd ended up having to take his axe to the door to actually get out of his room. Not even removing the doors hinges had helped get him out. The door was replaced and it was promptly stuck again. It became a regular obstacle to getting in or out of his room. Sometimes, he'd enter his room and find all of his furniture stuck to the ceiling. His fur blankets were shaved once or twice, which really defeated the purpose of having them.

Sometimes he'd return to his room after a full day of work in the mines (his preferred profession) and find that he'd been gifted with a new trinket or mechanized model of himself in less than flattering positions. He tried to get rid of them but they just kept reappearing. His whole room was now populated with unflattering versions of himself. It was getting more than a little frustrating. He couldn't figure out how it was all happening either. He'd lock his door and that did absolutely nothing to help. He was considering going to Mahal to complain, especially since everyone seemed to be steering clear of him. He assumed the sudden isolation was to prevent being caught in crossfire but he still resented it. It wasn't until some stranger slipped a note explaining what he'd done to earn such ire under his door one night that he even got the slightest inkling.

More than a little annoyed, he crumpled the note and went straight to the forges. He spotted Narvi instantly where she was working on something that looked dreadfully fiddly. Droy wondered what it was (perhaps a clock?) before his mind flashed back to a particularly unpleasant mechanized version of himself in his room that was having it's bare arse paddled in time with the seconds that passed. He turned bright red and forgot what his initial reason for coming here was. "I'm not wrong you know!" he snapped. "He was a twit!"

Narvi paused what she was doing. Telchar sighed heavily and Bar shook his head. The idiot obviously hadn't learned. Narvi looked up from her work, her eyes cold and hard as black granite, even as Droy forged ahead and dug himself deeper and deeper into the legendary craftswoman's ire. "I bet he wasn't even that skilled. Everyone always says he was good but he was just an Elf! All he ever made was trouble! I'll bet he didn't get tricked at all! He probably knew exactly what he was making! Face it! He was just as traitorous as all the other El-"

Again he didn't get a chance to finish. This time his rant had been cut off by Narvi's booted foot to his face. When he woke up in the infirmary getting the broken bones set and his many bruises tended to he had a massive headache and his jaw was wired shut so that it could heal. "You're an idiot," the healer said when she noticed he was awake, or rather awake enough to understand her. "Everyone knows you don't bad mouth the Elf Celebrimbor around Narvi," she informed him. "She'll find a way to kill you again if you keep it up." Droy whimpered some through his wired jaw. "When you can talk again you'd better go and grovel for forgiveness."

6) Don't let Narvi of Khazad-dûm hear that you badmouth Celebrimbor, unless you don't mind eating through a straw.

Really, it was all common sense sort of rules but some just had to learn these things the painful way.

**Author's Note:**

> Droy is just a random Dwarf of stupidity not meant to be related to any existing character. As to whether or not he is ever forgiven by Narvi... Well, it's rather unlikely but I imagine she'll stop getting revenge on him... eventually.


End file.
